But I don’t want to drip blood all over the treadmill!

June 22, 2011

More running obstacles? Ugh.

This past weekend I was in Virginia, playing with my older sister and nephew. I was hoping to get a few runs in, as my sister lives in an area with lots of trails, and is about 2 miles from a fantastic dirt path that circumvents a lake. Whenever I’m down there, I always look forward to doing that run. That’s going to have to wait until August when I’m there again, because that did not happen. Did you know chasing a 11-month old is exhausting? Oh, boy. That, along with the fact that I was coming down with something fierce, made my energy and motivation levels needed to run basically zilch.

That face makes my heart melt

Sunday morning we were going to baby gym class (omg…so cute) and had to leave the house at 9am. I wanted to get a long-ish run in before, but woke up completely beat. I decided to push back my run to after lunch, when Alex was having his afternoon nap (don’t worry—my sister was home; I wouldn’t have left him home alone). By the time that rolled around, I was still feeling exhausted, but decided to push myself out the door and stay out for at least an hour. Walking, running, whatever. Just some outside activity for an hour. I brought my ipod with me, which I haven’t done for over a year (I became a music-free runner May 2010 and haven’t looked back since), to keep my interest. I had Bossypants via Audiobook which kept me giggling the entire way. I stayed out the entire hour and did a pretty even mix of running and walking. It was painful, and probably my worst run in very very long time, but that little something was better than nothing.

Monday I had Alex all to myself while my sister was at work. Because I couldn’t do a run outside (not leaving the baby at home alone…duh), I resorted to my sister’s treadmill in the basement. I do not like treadmills in the slightest, and can’t remember for the life of me when the last time I used one was, but that was my only option. I wanted to do a nice, easy 5 miler during his morning or afternoon nap. However, my plans were abandoned pretty quickly. During nap #1, I was finishing up the breakfast dishes and had to clean the microwave plate. Someone (me) decided to have oatmeal for breakfast and that oatmeal overflowed in the microwave. During cleaning I dropped the slippery plate in the sink and it broke. Glass was everywhere, like in my fingers. So, blood was everywhere too. My initial thought was that I would have to go to the emergency room to get stitches. But I would have to take my sleeping nephew, and somehow drive to the nearest hospital in a town I was not very familiar with. In order to avoid that, I tried my best to patch myself up and stop the bleeding enough to pick up an 11-month old without bleeding all over him. After a solid 30 minutes of pressure on my fingers with them over my head, I was able to put some bandaids on (first of 5 for the day), and go about cleaning up the kitchen of glass: a place that Alex is encouraged to crawl around while I’m fixing food to keep an eye on him. By the way, Alex, thanks for staying asleep for the full two hours. And no sooner that I vacuumed up the last glass shard that I heard a sniffle and a cry from upstairs. My throbbing, pulsating hand put a stop to any dreams of running that afternoon, and the fact that every time I would pick up Alex my cuts would start bleeding again (cuts are on my left hand, which is my dominant hand/arm) just confirmed that. I don’t think swinging my arms back and forth while my blood is pumping hard, on the treadmill would do any favors in my avoiding the emergency room that day. But that’s okay, because running on Monday was the least of my worries. I just wanted a happy nephew who wasn’t eating or crawling on any glass. Yikes.

So this weekend was a crappy weekend for my running. But, I’m off to a good start for the week with a great run last night, another planned for tonight and the PRIDE RACE this Saturday! One of my favorites…which I say for everything. But, it is.